Liveaboard Century Old Sailboat Tour: Circumnavigation & Single Handing Ocean Crossings

My name is Martin and that's my boat. The name is Stir. The boat is 100 years old and I own her now for 12 years. I've been sailing since I was a little boy, so 50 years, 60 years. The first boat I owned was a 420, a sailing dinghy. I sailed around Italy to Greece, to Turkey and back. Then I had a steel boat, it was built in the Netherlands. We took her to all the canals in France. Then, yeah, the boats were getting bigger and now I'm ending on that one. 20 years the boat is my home, yeah, about 20 years. So we sailed around the world twice. Once with this boat, once with the previous boat. And now we are planning to sail to Madagascar. We have paying clients sailing with us, usually in the Met for one week. Usually there are families with kids. So we have to stay in the Met for maybe two, three years, something like that. And then we see. Maybe going down to the Red Sea, maybe go to the Pacific and then to Southeast Asia. This way to Madagascar. She's about 80 feet over deck. A Godfrey catch. It's eight working sails. I have more but I don't use them all the time. We have the windlass for the anchor. Down here I have the storage for the chain. And I have paint down here and wine and stuff like that. Down here, there have been the water tanks, but we moved them. Now it's a cabin. I'm alone on the boat now, so all the chairs and stuff is removed. That's a good thing on this boat. There are different levels. So people can sit here or they can go onto the cabin roof. Here I sit for my morning coffee. That's our decks house. In bad weather, we can sit outside. We have the view as well. It's not like in a normal yacht where you're always downstairs. Three cabins, like this one that's in the bow. It's for two people or four kids. They can sleep up there. They have the shower and toilet there. Just at the head. That's what we call a small cabin. We give it for one person or if they are really in love, there can be two. But it's not that big. That's the second one. That's nice and it's big and it's a lot of storage. It has been before, as far as I know, the owner cabin. I have the bathroom here. The boat was built in Scotland. So originally she was sailing in cold countries. So this stove is here. I use it in winter in the mat as well. I just make a big fire in there. That's the galley. So we can cook here for like 10 people. It's not big, but it's okay. It works. We use electric and gas, but it's hard to refill the gas bottle sometimes. So we changed. Now we only have electric. It makes things easier. That's the wheelhouse. Or when I'm sailing alone, I can sleep up here. So I have the overview. Standard navigation and stuff. I have two autopilots. Because I did a lot of crossings like Pacific or Atlantic on my own. So I need a lot of electronic to handle the boat. When I bought the boat, the electronic was out of the maybe 70s. It was good stuff, but not useful anymore. And I've got lucky. I've got hit by a lightning stroke. And this lightning stroke killed everything. And the insurance paid so I could buy the new one. I got hit twice by a lightning. Some of the boat must be magnetic. That's the engine room. That's the place where I spend my days and nights. That's the main engines. I can store six tons of fuel. The main engines are from Rolls-Royce. They're from the 60s, 70s, as far as I know. I have a generator. Water, all the stuff we need for the boat to run the thing. Water, I can store 1,000 liters. But I have a water maker that is producing 250 liters an hour. So I don't need more water storage. That's enough. And the boat was ending here when I bought her. It was just a wall and nothing in between. So I just ripped it out to make the bed bigger. And the hatch was not here. Because in case of a fire, I thought it's a good idea if you have an emergency escape. Our cabin is down here. So we try to keep the people out of here. So we don't make it too comfortable. So we have the washing machine here and the freezer and all the stuff I need for working. And yeah, that's my hammock. That's my second bed. I use solar panels as well. I have three on this side and three on the other side. When I'm alone, I can live on the solar panels. With people on board, it's impossible. You see the mast. I did it in Turkey New. And the wood was not completely dry. So it's bent a little bit. Well, this one is from laminated wood as well. And they are not special or waterproof or just standard laminated wood. But it stays. The wires, they are standard wires. Nothing is stainless steel. But stainless steel looks good. Looks good. The next day, it just breaks. Galvanized is more elastic. It's honest. I see it gets rusty. Then you can change. Because for insurance, you would have to change your wires every, I guess, 10 years or something. And this one is now 14 years old. I can just buy the stuff in a hardware store. It makes it cheaper. I can do everything on my own. I don't need special terminals or anything. But it's dangerous. I mean, staying at home, it's more dangerous, maybe. You'll get hit by a car or whatever. No, living on a boat, it's pretty safe. In these 20 years, I've got nothing stolen. I never had some bad experience nowhere. I mean, just try. But there are different ways you can live and you can be happy. I mean, a standard job can be good as well. But just start with a small boat somewhere. Or get a boat and cross the Atlantic. And we will see what happens. Try to do this as long as I can. I don't know how long it works now. I'm 61 years old. And with 70, I don't know if I still have the power to do it. But then I will find something else. I don't know.